MaXXXine (2024)

Director Ty West’s hard-R film is only for fans of the horror genre, several of its gory scnes being very graphic. It is part of a trilogy—X, created in  2022, and Pearl, also in that year. I have not sen the others, although I know that all deal with some  aspect of filmmaking and the desire to be famous. The character of Maxine appears in X. I was surprised that MaXXXine is playing in an art theater, rather than amongst the excessive gore-littered YouTube. As you might guess, changin the one “x” in Maxine Mink’s name to a capital three, is a direct reference to the former practice of so labeling porno films. Maxine Minx (Mia Goth) is aspiring to make a mainsream film in 1985 during the period when a serial killer dubbed The Nightsalker is terrorizing Los Angelos and San Francisco.

A home video clip showing a little girl dancing while her father talks to her of religion shows what a distance she has traveled since her childhood. Neither God nor father are evident in the life of her porn star career—she also moonlights as a sexy performer entertaining men who pay to watch her in a private booth.

Maxine successfully tries out for a sequel to a period piece horror film to be called Puritan II. The director is a strong woman, Elizabeth Bender (Elizabeth Debicki, who sternly warns Maxine to follow her lead in the film.Various people invite her to a party, which she turns down. A mysterious leather-clad figure who had watched her in a peepshow leaves a VHS tape with a porn film she had appeared in with some friends who have since been murdered. She asks her videostore friend Leon if he can trace where the tape came from, but he also joins the growing list of victims of the killer.

A sinister private detective John Labat (Kevin Bacon) contacts her threatening that her past crimes will be revealed unless she meets with hi employer. (These must be the crimes chronicled in the first of the trilogy.) One of the creepiest sequences will find him chasing her on the huge lot of the studio where Maxine is shooting her film. This includes him following her past the Bates Motel and up the hill into the gothic mansion featured in Psycho. There are other gruesome murders of Maxie’s friends, as well a pair of male and female detectives (Bobby Canavale and Michelle Monaghan) who try to solicit information about the murders from the actress. She refuses both times they approach her.

When John Labat continues to harrass Maxine she turns to her agent  Teddy Knight, who like her, will resort to any measure, even murder, to further her and his career. The fate of Labat is as horrifying as it is deserved. The climax at the party that Maxine decides to attend contains a surprise concerning the killer and his relationship to Maxine, as well as serving as an example of how twisted religion can become. The killer is a rabid televangelist named Ernest Mille (Simon Prast), sick of” the filth” of pornography. He talks of having offered his victims the love of God, and when they refused, they received divine wrath for rejecting it. Maxine emerges from the bloody night to go on to star in her film.

The unwary might think her unscathed—and maybe the filmmakers do as well. There is a school of horror filmmakers who are so nihilistic that they reject the morality of the classic horror novel genre in which Good eventually triumphs over Evil. The killer is defeated at the end (after many previous conquests), but as the credits roll we know that he has survived somehow and will emerge to strike again. The nihilism makes good sense for filmmakers economically, as it allows endless sequels to such films as Scream (4 ), A Nightmare on Elm Street (6) Hellraiser (9), Friday the 13^th (10).

MaXXXxine might suggest to people of faith the words of the author of Psalm 73 who finds himself almost envying the wicked because they seemingly escape the consequences of their sinful acts and prosper. Maxine and her agent certainly do, with the film ending just short of her Hollywood success, but clearly promising it. But the ancient writer is so grounded in faith in the God who led Israel out of Egypt that he writes himself out of doubt and into his faith that God will call the wicked to account for their sins. Although I don’t discern any such faith in writer/director Ti West, I think that this is the best way to justify taking the time to watch his film about an ambitious woman willing to do anything for success.

This review will be in the August issue of VP along with a set of questions for reflection and/or discussion. If you have found reviews on this site helpful, please consider purchasing a subscription or individual issue in The Store.